Freelancing | How To Create A Winning Bid on Elance.com

How To Create A Winning Bid on Elance.com | Freelancing

I am a freelancer on Elance.com. Honestly, I don’t know of a better or greater source to utilize to get leads on writing assignments and projects.

Mjomba | How To Create A Winning Bid on Elance.com

Let’s delve one of the most popular questions that most freelancers have to deal with. To begin with, the key to winning jobs, getting great feedback and being able to charge higher for your work is crafting a great proposal. Sadly, most of us don’t know what to include in a proposal, or just how and what to say in a bid. When I first joined Elance.com, I had this fiery freakish fancy dream to woo clients into “begging” me to handle their projects. Though I didn’t get it right at the first instance, experience has taught me to take into consideration the following 8 aspects:

Use the client’s name

This is a very simple extra touch, but I promise it has a profound impact on most clients. This simply means you are a contractor that pays close attention to details, which is a very essential ingredient of a great writer. Be sure to read through the client’s profile and the post to see if you can fetch his/her name. Then use this information to personalize your bid. I have done this and will tell you this—it works like charm!

Rates

Do not let your rates entirely define your bid by talking about how cheap or fair your rates are, though this is also a very important factor. Do this—just be honest about your rate and what you charge for your work. I wouldn’t hire you if you charged $40/hour in your bid when your profile clearly states a rate of 10/hour. What’s that difference supposed to mean? If you do not explain that—which most freelancers don’t because they don’t have that opportunity—then, I’d simply imagine that the deal is not fair on my side, regardless of the technicality of the project.

Bear in mind that if you are a seasoned writer, you deserve to be rewarded fairly for it, so set your rates accordingly and don’t ever sell yourself short! Similarly, realize that most clients look at several proposals before they select their preferred contractor which means you have an equal chance to portray your expertise. Cease from being mysterious about your rates; it’s still one of the top reasons why most freelancers lose a project.

Outline how you will complete the project

In trying to answer the “How to create a winning bid on Elance.com” question, let’s hit one of the most important elements of a bid–Outlining how you intend to handle a project. This is a very critical aspect of any bid. A serious client looks for a contractor who understands particular project requirements. “Demonstrate” in your bid how exactly you intend to handle any given project. Try to create short and precise points that make the clients to want to contact you. These are also called “teaser points” Say something like, “I’m not too wordy so expect short, simple, and easy to read and understand sentences.” “According to Copyblogger, 8 out of 10 visitors read the title which is why I tend to focus on a more compelling title such as “Creating a winning bid on Elnace.com…et cetera” This shows that you are an organized freelancer and that you have a definite approach as to how you’ll handle the project. As a client, it reassures me that your plan will help you stay organized and beat my deadline.

Deposit Information

While this is quite unfortunate, there will always be people who look for opportunities to defraud unsuspecting freelancers. Luckily, platforms like Elance have installed strict policies that work to the betterment of client-contactor relationships. Definitely, you do not wish to be on the receiving end of such instances. This is why Elance.com requires you to begin working ONLY after your client has created and funded a milestone.

Adhering to some of these “petty” rules helps you stay safe. Be wary of clients that ask for FREE samples…politely ask them to pay for a test article after which they can choose to hire you for other projects. As your skills and experience grows, you’ll begin receiving private invitations from referred or returning clients that are ready to pay well for your work.

Answers to any questions asked in the bid

If the client is not interested in your answers to questions asked in their post, he/she would not have asked them in the first place. This where reading a post carefully comes in handy. Some clients go as far as including some odd questions to make sure that bidders pay attention to detail. To win more jobs on Elance, you need to be that kind of bidder.

Deadlines

As a client, I would want to hear what you’ve got to say about meeting my deadline. If you set a project deadline of 3 days then please honor that. Understanding your capabilities and actual skill set becomes very important in managing deadlines. Avoid including unrealistic delivery dates in your proposal, for God’s sake, this really annoys clients when you fail to honor them. If you are not at all comfortable a particular deadline, be sure to discuss it in advance. If you need your client to extend it, do not wait until it’s too late to do so.

Language that shows your expertise

Try to be neutral; avoid overstating your skills and experience. Instead, show your client that you are bidding on his/her project because you are confident of delivering exceptional content and that you have plans and resources required to deliver top notch outputs, at a reasonable price. For instance, if you are bidding on an article writing project on a particular topic, be sure to cite what makes you knowledgeable in that specific area. Skillfully displaying your skills and experience makes you an irresistible freelance, even when you are the highest bidder!

Honesty

Aforementioned, honesty is a trait that cuts across all jobs and careers. If you promise to deliver what you truly cannot manage, and you fortunately win the bid, you’ll most likely lose that client for future projects. Sometimes this means a bad review that obviously leaves an awfully negative impact on your success on Elance, especially for future projects. Similarly, honesty indicates that you will not only work on the project, but also deliver a masterpiece!

Over to you

Truth be said, this how to create a winning bid on Elance.com is a very popular question. Now that you have the tips, go ahead an put them to work; do not just take my word for it! Of course, it might take some time before you fully grasp these tips. Make your “connects” count, one after another. Avoid bidding on multiple bids at ago. Instead, concentrate on one and give it your all. Play with your creativity and let it express itself in a manner that allows you to combine these tips into that close-to-perfect proposal.

Be professional in your bid, promise what you can deliver, write skillfully, proofread your work for typos and grammatical errors, check for plagiarism and beat deadlines. With these, you are sure to go places, not just about winning jobs but also delivering what clients most clients call “Thank you!’ This is what spurs you to the top of the client list. Most importantly, more proposal practice = more jobs

Create your free Elance account today. What problems are you having in relation to this topic? What are you hacks and tricks to creating winning bids? Are there any other tricks to winning jobs apart from creating a great bid? What are they? Feel free to leave a comment, suggest, shout out or ask for help. Sharing is caring. Hopefully, you now know how to create a winning bid on Elance.com.